Here is my first post in Android Forums!
I had spent several months researching various tablets, and in the start I had viewed tablet computers (collectively) as more of a gimmick than anything else. Still, though, I was drawn to the concept since I've been planning to switch to e-books once I start graduate school since I won't be able to take advantage of free text rental from my university anymore, and have something for basic web browsing outside of the house and not expect much else. When I first started looking, the tablet selection was fairly thin. The Samsung Galaxy Tab seemed pretty solid but I wasn't in the market for a 7" tab and the "lesser" Droid devices were fairly stripped down and sluggish. Though I enjoy the fluidity of iOS, I couldn't bring myself to spend the money for what seemed to me was a blown-up iPhone that couldn't make calls. I have an adequate desktop computer (1 year old) but my MacBook recently died so needs changed from seeking a tablet for textbooks and occasional browsing and email to a device that could fill the role of my laptop and supplement my Windows-based desktop. Unfortunately, previously there weren't many options that would fill this need, which leads us to the Iconia A500, picked up on day one (well actually day 2 since Best Buy was closed Easter Sunday).
Sorry For the drawn-out intro.
*Packaging*
It's a fairly simple box, showing a picture of the product inside. The lid forms a very tight seal with the bottom half and was actually diffilult to remove, but I suppose there is no fear of dropping the product out. The tablet itself was also held very tightly in its groove, so no slipping around. Also found in the box is a screen cleaning cloth (very useful as the front is VERY glossy and a finger print magnet), micro USB cord for data connection, charger, and user manuals and paperwork. Packaging may seem insignificant but it's quality gives me confidence that the product was safe in shipping.
*Looks*
The Iconia A500 is a fairly attractive device, if a little bit less "flashy"than some other devices out there (read: iPad2). The brushed aluminum backing on the super glossy black front works nicely. Where the A500 shines from a design standpoint is in the shapes. All edges are well rounded and feel great in the hand and adds to the user experience. The rounded back with glossy silver "Acer" logo and silver speaker grilles are both nice touches. The layout of the various buttons, switches, and ports all seem logically placed and their use won't likely get in the way. USB (more on this later), micro USB and HDMI are on the side, towards the bottom which makes sense since you likely won't be holding it like a book with a keyboard attached or when connected to a TV. Towards the top on the side are the headphone jack, power button and port for charger. Topside is the volume rocker with orientation-dependent context (neat) and a physical switch for locking screen orientation (also neat). As far as the competition goes, the A500 is a bit on the beefy side but only weighs roughly 1.5 ounces more than the Xoom and is slightly wider which gives a little bit more area around the screen to grip the device and not cover up any content. My opinion is that any added girth is more than offset by the plethora of ports (for a tablet) Acer was so kind to give us.
*Features*
Here is why the A500 has to be the best value out there for tablets, and amazing that the $450 was hit. I'm sure by now everybody knows it comes with 16gigs of onboard memory, Tegra 2 processor, 1gig of ram, micro SD slot and etc. However, I don't think the significance of the USB port on this thing can be overstated. Next to flash, the lack of USB was the biggest complaint of the iPad (now iPad 2) was the lack of this feature and even the mighty Xoom does not have it. Sure, there are docks available but with this I was able to pick up a $10 Logitech keyboard and type away (writing this review with my new toy). Again, this is a feature we sometimes take for granted but this totally changed the user experience for me. The orientation lock switch is another small feature, that others seemed to have overlooked but it's great not having to shuffle through menus to disable the accelerometer to correctly view a photo that was taken in a landscape view when I'm using the tablet in portrait only to have to change the mode back afterwards. Since many tablets are starting to use the same hardware under the hood, these little extras translate into a big deal.
*Usage*
Honeycomb is still in its infancy and does have some hiccups from time to time. Still it is nice to see a tablet-optimized Android OS which further separates these from their smartphone cousins. I have gotten an occasional non-responsive program (mostly downloaded from the market) but overall it runs smoothly when cycling through menus and loading programs. Some have said it feels snappier than the Xoom, some disagree. It is interesting to note that, although the hardware specs are nearly identical, endgaget did some benchmarks with the A500, Xoom, and the G-Slate and the A500 appeared to have outperformed both in those tests. The screen is very responsive and I read it can detect 10 touch points. The screen itself is very bright and clear. I can hold it at the same distance as my 13.3" laptop with the same ease of reading. It is also much brighter at about 33% than the laptop screen at maximum and colors are more vivd and the whites are much "whiter". The device really impressed me with web browsing. Full versions of websites loaded as quickly as any computer and even some of the more data-intensive sites scroll smoothly. Flash videos load up and play smoothly in-browser and full screen mode. People don't seem to like the included browser but I have had no problems and do appreciate having tabbed browsing on a device like this as I had gotten used to that on my Mac and PC. I haven't performed an official battery drain test but I get 1-2 days of fairly regular usage, so I would guess I'm getting close to Acer's claim of 8 hours. The Battery seems to charge up quickly as well. My largest complaint with regards to power is the extremely short power cord. Clearly, Acer was not thinking of charging the thing while in use. In short, the more I use this device and discover more of its potential, the more I like it.
*Bottom Line*
This generation of Android tablets have me excited for the future of this market. These come the closest yet to realizing this market's ambition of replacing the laptop, and for me the A500 has done more than an adequate job in its first week. It changed my previous view of tablets as overgrown smartphones to legitimate contenders. At $450 the A500 is pretty much a no-brainer for anyone looking to pick up a tablet right now and finds wi-fi only to be suitable. Even given the smaller amount of flash memory on board, Acer still managed to undersell the competition (aside from Asus) as most of the 16gb tabs out there go for $500. It's just too bad this little device isn't getting much for publicity. Sony announces that they are working on a new device and doesn't give any details, and that is worthy of a story on CNN but an Acer tab with the same specs, more features, and far lower price point flies in totally under the radar. Oh well.
My $0.02
I had spent several months researching various tablets, and in the start I had viewed tablet computers (collectively) as more of a gimmick than anything else. Still, though, I was drawn to the concept since I've been planning to switch to e-books once I start graduate school since I won't be able to take advantage of free text rental from my university anymore, and have something for basic web browsing outside of the house and not expect much else. When I first started looking, the tablet selection was fairly thin. The Samsung Galaxy Tab seemed pretty solid but I wasn't in the market for a 7" tab and the "lesser" Droid devices were fairly stripped down and sluggish. Though I enjoy the fluidity of iOS, I couldn't bring myself to spend the money for what seemed to me was a blown-up iPhone that couldn't make calls. I have an adequate desktop computer (1 year old) but my MacBook recently died so needs changed from seeking a tablet for textbooks and occasional browsing and email to a device that could fill the role of my laptop and supplement my Windows-based desktop. Unfortunately, previously there weren't many options that would fill this need, which leads us to the Iconia A500, picked up on day one (well actually day 2 since Best Buy was closed Easter Sunday).
Sorry For the drawn-out intro.
*Packaging*
It's a fairly simple box, showing a picture of the product inside. The lid forms a very tight seal with the bottom half and was actually diffilult to remove, but I suppose there is no fear of dropping the product out. The tablet itself was also held very tightly in its groove, so no slipping around. Also found in the box is a screen cleaning cloth (very useful as the front is VERY glossy and a finger print magnet), micro USB cord for data connection, charger, and user manuals and paperwork. Packaging may seem insignificant but it's quality gives me confidence that the product was safe in shipping.
*Looks*
The Iconia A500 is a fairly attractive device, if a little bit less "flashy"than some other devices out there (read: iPad2). The brushed aluminum backing on the super glossy black front works nicely. Where the A500 shines from a design standpoint is in the shapes. All edges are well rounded and feel great in the hand and adds to the user experience. The rounded back with glossy silver "Acer" logo and silver speaker grilles are both nice touches. The layout of the various buttons, switches, and ports all seem logically placed and their use won't likely get in the way. USB (more on this later), micro USB and HDMI are on the side, towards the bottom which makes sense since you likely won't be holding it like a book with a keyboard attached or when connected to a TV. Towards the top on the side are the headphone jack, power button and port for charger. Topside is the volume rocker with orientation-dependent context (neat) and a physical switch for locking screen orientation (also neat). As far as the competition goes, the A500 is a bit on the beefy side but only weighs roughly 1.5 ounces more than the Xoom and is slightly wider which gives a little bit more area around the screen to grip the device and not cover up any content. My opinion is that any added girth is more than offset by the plethora of ports (for a tablet) Acer was so kind to give us.
*Features*
Here is why the A500 has to be the best value out there for tablets, and amazing that the $450 was hit. I'm sure by now everybody knows it comes with 16gigs of onboard memory, Tegra 2 processor, 1gig of ram, micro SD slot and etc. However, I don't think the significance of the USB port on this thing can be overstated. Next to flash, the lack of USB was the biggest complaint of the iPad (now iPad 2) was the lack of this feature and even the mighty Xoom does not have it. Sure, there are docks available but with this I was able to pick up a $10 Logitech keyboard and type away (writing this review with my new toy). Again, this is a feature we sometimes take for granted but this totally changed the user experience for me. The orientation lock switch is another small feature, that others seemed to have overlooked but it's great not having to shuffle through menus to disable the accelerometer to correctly view a photo that was taken in a landscape view when I'm using the tablet in portrait only to have to change the mode back afterwards. Since many tablets are starting to use the same hardware under the hood, these little extras translate into a big deal.
*Usage*
Honeycomb is still in its infancy and does have some hiccups from time to time. Still it is nice to see a tablet-optimized Android OS which further separates these from their smartphone cousins. I have gotten an occasional non-responsive program (mostly downloaded from the market) but overall it runs smoothly when cycling through menus and loading programs. Some have said it feels snappier than the Xoom, some disagree. It is interesting to note that, although the hardware specs are nearly identical, endgaget did some benchmarks with the A500, Xoom, and the G-Slate and the A500 appeared to have outperformed both in those tests. The screen is very responsive and I read it can detect 10 touch points. The screen itself is very bright and clear. I can hold it at the same distance as my 13.3" laptop with the same ease of reading. It is also much brighter at about 33% than the laptop screen at maximum and colors are more vivd and the whites are much "whiter". The device really impressed me with web browsing. Full versions of websites loaded as quickly as any computer and even some of the more data-intensive sites scroll smoothly. Flash videos load up and play smoothly in-browser and full screen mode. People don't seem to like the included browser but I have had no problems and do appreciate having tabbed browsing on a device like this as I had gotten used to that on my Mac and PC. I haven't performed an official battery drain test but I get 1-2 days of fairly regular usage, so I would guess I'm getting close to Acer's claim of 8 hours. The Battery seems to charge up quickly as well. My largest complaint with regards to power is the extremely short power cord. Clearly, Acer was not thinking of charging the thing while in use. In short, the more I use this device and discover more of its potential, the more I like it.
*Bottom Line*
This generation of Android tablets have me excited for the future of this market. These come the closest yet to realizing this market's ambition of replacing the laptop, and for me the A500 has done more than an adequate job in its first week. It changed my previous view of tablets as overgrown smartphones to legitimate contenders. At $450 the A500 is pretty much a no-brainer for anyone looking to pick up a tablet right now and finds wi-fi only to be suitable. Even given the smaller amount of flash memory on board, Acer still managed to undersell the competition (aside from Asus) as most of the 16gb tabs out there go for $500. It's just too bad this little device isn't getting much for publicity. Sony announces that they are working on a new device and doesn't give any details, and that is worthy of a story on CNN but an Acer tab with the same specs, more features, and far lower price point flies in totally under the radar. Oh well.
My $0.02
